The Equity Gap in California's Home Electrification Programs

UC Berkeley research for the California Air Resources Board on why low-income households are left out of home electrification programs.

Research analyst on UC Berkeley’s Equitable Housing Decarbonization Project, prepared for the California Air Resources Board (CARB), 2024–2025

At a glance

Client California Air Resources Board
Role Research analyst; led stakeholder interviews and coded the results
Methods Semi-structured interviews, qualitative coding
Skills Stakeholder research, program evaluation, equity analysis
Public report Terner Center summary · CARB report page

The question

California funds many programs that help households replace gas appliances with electric ones, but participation skews toward affluent homeowners. CARB asked why low-income households and renters are left out, and what the state could change so these programs reach them.

The five barriers the research identified along a household's path to electrifying.

What I did

  1. Stakeholder interviews. I led interviews with utilities, contractors, funding agencies, and program implementers about where households drop out of electrification programs.
  2. Analysis. I coded the interviews to identify systemic gaps, and contributed to reports on aligning program funding cycles and equity requirements.

What the study found

The final report, published in 2026, found that low-income households face barriers at every stage, and that fixing one stage alone is not enough.

Recommendations from the final report, tagged by the barriers they address.

Household surveys before and after retrofits show why the path matters as much as the rebate.

Research base and a key outcome from pre- and post-retrofit household surveys.
  • Usability decides the payoff. Energy security improved substantially only for households that could run their new systems and were satisfied with the installation, which is why the report pairs funding with navigators and contractor training.

The research team was led by Carolina Reid, Rachel Morello-Frosch, and Yael Nidam of UC Berkeley.